Oh my word. What another absolutely incredible night at Celtic Park. It was a victory based on pure guts, sheer determination and raw desire. We were relentless and the attitude instilled in the players by Gordon Strachan is a credit to himself and the coaching staff. You think you`ve seen it all on European nights at Celtic Park and then last night happened. The scenes were incredible and it was the stuff that dreams are made of.
Id been cautious of the threat posed by Shakhtar in my earlier post on this thread despite their recent slump in form. That said I harboured high hopes of an early goal to see how theyd react to the hostile atmposhere and I even had a tentative expectation that we could put them away comfortably if that goal was forthcoming.
However, the early goal came very much at the wrong end from my perspective and it was a shocker to give away given Kennedy could have dealt with it in so many ways. It completely altered the whole complexion of the game, with the task then being to beat them by any margin rather than aiming for a rout that would have put us through on the night.
We then struggled to get into our flowing passing game given the double injury blow that struck our defence in the first half. Naylors calf strain saw Hartley revert to left back and so we had two right footed players playing on our left hand side. Then came the sickening sight of Kennedys knee buckling underneath him when he landed after an aerial challenge - the same left knee that was reconstructed several times before and which kept him out of action for over 3 years. However, theres positive early reports today that scans didnt show up any severe damage, which would be a relief to all.
It meant we had a centre half playing at right back, a central midfield player drop ping back to left back and Steven Pressley also coming in after 5 months out injured. Given the makeshift nature of the defence I thought McManus was inspirational last night, completely outplaying the very talented Lucarelli.
With little threat on the outside over on the left where the right footed Hartley and Jarosik were operating, the onus was on Aiden McGeady to provide the attacking threat on the other side and yet again the bhoy delivered on the big stage when it mattered most. Shakhtar were able to double up on him from very early on given it was obvious thats where the threat lay but he still provided two balls of sublime quality, one for Jarosik when he conspired to miss his header and the other for Donatis winner.
We missed Hartley`s calm assurance in midfield though Scott Brown put in a typically dynamic and lung-bursting display and Donati got on the ball a lot and probed constantly before his goal, which will hopefully be the makings of him. The problem was that with neither full back being able to provide a natural overlap, the threat, other than an odd McGeady foray down the right, was generally infield and in front of a Shakhtar side with 10 men behind the ball.
Thats not a criticism of Caldwell and Hartley, both of whom did admirable jobs in positions that are alien to them. Jiri Jarosiks renaissance also continues apace and, even aside from his goal, his display and workrate was first class. McDonald and Hesselink put in tremendous shifts up front in trying circumstances too and all over the park the effort, attitude and application was superb, and I even include Pressley in that.
Looking forward to next week I dont see Celtics progression as being a foregone conclusion by any means but Im warmed by the fact we have two chances. Were more than capable of taking a point against Milan ourselves as the performances weve put in against them in our 5 Champions League meetings in the past 3 years testify. Equally theres no guarantee that Shakhtar will beat Benfica despite holding home advantage. Theyve only 6 days to recover from what was a heartbreaking defeat, their 3rd in succession in the tournament, and theres a UEFA Cup spot riding on it too.
The scenes on the pitch at the end were awesome. The Holy Goalie went straight into the crowd and emerged with a scarf which he held up over his head on the pitch for a rendition of Youll Never Walk Alone. Donati was walking off when he heard the crowd strike up his song and returned to the centre circle to conduct the adoring choir before launching his jersey into the crowd. Just looking at him its obvious he was thinking, Fook me. This is a spectacular place.
Awesome. Truly awesome
